thoughts, inspiration, devotions and recipes from my journey in the far north

After such great weather over the past couple of weeks, today we have rain (but the higher you go up the West Coast, you’ll find hail, ice and snow like in Washington state…so, is it really spring??).

Anyways, I get an email daily from Foodbuzz.com and one of their 9 showcased blogs included an apricot almond cake. Totally got me thinking about apricots (love) and almonds (love love) and everything with almond flavoring (love love love). But, since the recipe included dairy and eggs, I searched for a non-dairy and egg version…you know, a vegan version.

I found one that looked easy enough and included ingredients I had. The only problem the recipe was in metric measurements instead of the imperial measurements we use in the US. Since I have dealt with metric measurements while living in the UK, all I had to do was convert the recipe. Ok, not so simple. The converted measurements were not your even cup measurements…so I had to adjust the recipe a little to make it work approximately with the metric measurements. I, also, made a baking temperature adjustment as well as baking time adjustment. The cake is beautiful…golden and almond-y…and it tastes so good. Perfect for a baking on a spring rainy day.

Apricot Almond Cake

Apricot Almond Cake (egg and dairy free)

Cake

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup ground almonds (do this in the food processor)

2/3 cup apricots, chopped (food processor works great here too)

1/2 cup soy free Earth Balance

2 T Caro Syrup (I used light, but you can use golden OR if you have Golden Syrup, use it)

1 tsp almond extract (I used a lot because it simply poured out too fast, so add more if you like)

2/3 cup nut milk (I used almond, but soy will work too)

Topping

1 T sugar

2 T flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 35oF (18oC)

Using an 8″ round cake pan, grease lightly and line bottom with parchment. I used a springform pan.

Mix the first 6 ingredients.

Melt (microwave is fine) the ‘butter’ and the caro syrup (or golden syrup). Add the nut milk and the almond extract. Mix and add to the dry ingredients. Stir.

Spoon into the cake pan and top with 2 T flaked almonds and 1 T sugar.

Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, until golden and tested as being done using a cake tester.